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safety

another safety concern that I had come up last year.
My daughter and I drove 2 miles back in the woods to go to a cache and when we got to the parking area there was a pick-up parked there. Well then I think gee we don't have a clue what that person might be like and it was also during bear hunting season. I drove down the woods road a ways and sat until I saw the owner of the pick-up come out of the woods. It was a young man with 3 little boys. Did we ever laugh about being concerned then.
BUT it is something to think about.

As for "every one carries a cell phone everywhere". That is true, but don't depend on it when you have never been to an area. Two things have happened to me over the last few years.

First, I left the car (with great cell signal) and did a hike to a cache which was about 3/4 mile the hard way up a mountain (yes, found the right trail later). When we got to the top we laughed about calling for a lift down. Looked at the cells and there was zero service.

Cache Maine and I had an encounter with a drunk driver last year down East. We had had service most of the weekend. When we had this experience we went to call 911 and again, no service.

Be Prepared

If I'm going to cache by myself, which I do most of the time, I alway let Dianne know where I'm headed. While I don't always give her a list of the caches I intend to do, she knows the general area. Like Lois Ann (hollora) said, we can't always depend on cell phones.

While I have always been fairly "good" in the woods, geocaching is a differnt cat and if you walk down a well defined trail and then wander off a 100 or 200 feet when you get to ground zero to locate the cache, it is VERY easy to get turned around and wonder where the trail is. Has this happened to you? It's happened to me several times! Now I mark the spot where I venture off the trail as a waypoint. Find the cache, return to the mark and head 'er on home!

I know it may seem like everyone has a cell phone when you are trying to peacefully see a movie at the theatre or have someone on a phone in a car pull out in front of you, but a few of us still don't have one. When we took the snowmobile trip to Millinocket this winter, we went over 100 miles with the 3 of us on one snowmobile. No one knew where we were and on one trail we never passed another machine. Stupid? Yes. But what can you do. We have no friends or family so if you want to be able to go out and have fun, you have to take the chances. Will we someday be stabbed like the person in Lewiston yesterday a few yards from a cache? Maybe. Will be stop caching because of it. No. Spend whatever time you have, enjoying life. Don't spend too much time worrying "what if".

If I'm going to cache by myself, which I do most of the time, I alway let Dianne know where I'm headed. While I don't always give her a list of the caches I intend to do, she knows the general area. Like Lois Ann (hollora) said, we can't always depend on cell phones.

While I have always been fairly "good" in the woods, geocaching is a differnt cat and if you walk down a well defined trail and then wander off a 100 or 200 feet when you get to ground zero to locate the cache, it is VERY easy to get turned around and wonder where the trail is. Has this happened to you? It's happened to me several times! Now I mark the spot where I venture off the trail as a waypoint. Find the cache, return to the mark and head 'er on home!

I have to admit I'm pretty bad . . . I often geocache alone and often don't tell my wife or anyone else where I'm going to be other than a general, vague description (i.e. I'll be camping and geocaching downeast) . . . and I must admit that sometimes I end up in some unsavory spots . . . but I guess I just trust in my good looks and commonsense to get me out of any potential trouble . . . boy, am I trouble!

As far as getting lost in the woods . . . for some reason I've always been pretty good at knowing where I am and which direction to head while hiking and geocaching . . . but if you get me in a City I'll get turned around wicked easy.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."

I know it may seem like everyone has a cell phone when you are trying to peacefully see a movie at the theatre or have someone on a phone in a car pull out in front of you, but a few of us still don't have one. When we took the snowmobile trip to Millinocket this winter, we went over 100 miles with the 3 of us on one snowmobile. No one knew where we were and on one trail we never passed another machine. Stupid? Yes. But what can you do. We have no friends or family so if you want to be able to go out and have fun, you have to take the chances. Will we someday be stabbed like the person in Lewiston yesterday a few yards from a cache? Maybe. Will be stop caching because of it. No. Spend whatever time you have, enjoying life. Don't spend too much time worrying "what if".

I don't carry a cell phone either and I routinely ride sleds/ATVs, hike/geocache, etc. . . . figure I haven't needed one until this point so I probably don't need one now.

As far as sledding . . . don't worry . . . if you run into trouble you should just ditch the sled, leave your gear behind, start walking in any old direction and start tearing up your trail map to leave as a "bread crumb" trail despite the wind . . . and yes I am being facetious . . . this is what a snowmobiler who got lost and ran into mechanical problems did this past winter . . . pretty much did everything wrong.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."